Clemson Alumna Shares Advice With Women’s Leadership Creative Inquiry Group

On April 1st, Alumnus Georgia Callahan (’73, M ’77), Vice President of Climate Change at Chevron, spoke with the Women’s Leadership Creative Inquiry class (a course in Clemson’s unique undergraduate research program that RIE Associate Director, Linda Gallicchio, spearheaded).

Callahan had not been back to Clemson since she graduated over 30 years ago. While spending a bit of time reviewing the chronology of her career, she reflected that work is/was the easy part of her many jobs; that the politics and many personalities are the hard parts. She described her current role as one of an influencer and marketer of ideas—a situation that many will find themselves in, with no direct authority, yet the need to work effectively with others to get things done.

When reflecting on the best piece of advice she ever received, she mentioned a boss at the EPA. The way she handled a sensitive issue during a budget meeting caused everyone to roll with laughter. Afterwards she asked if her approach was wrong or inappropriate. Her boss said that it is essential to be who you are—and that was what she’d done. She was her authentic self and continues to be so.

In harkening back to her comments about politics and personalities, Callahan said that being positive is crucial to building good relationships. A key piece of advice she gave to the students was to not let their emotions drive them – especially when an email might anger them. In such a circumstance she advised to look at it, then close it. Go on to other things and not deal with it until the next day. By not responding to something so irritating immediately, she said, you give yourself the time and space to respond to things graciously. It is about respecting others—and you never know when that other person may be a crucial factor in the course of your work.

There were so many pieces of wisdom in what Callahan shared. She emphasized that one must be adaptable, flexible, and able to change in order to survive and thrive. She described herself as opportunistic, a leader who hates deadlines so much that she gets things done early. She spoke about how, when she was a project manager, that tack reduced her team’s stress, which they greatly appreciated because they weren’t running around like crazy at the eleventh hour when everyone else was. Callahan also said that being results oriented yet recognizing that change often occurs incrementally helps you create a smart stepwise process to move people forward.

One of the most exciting parts of the time with Callahan was when she gave advice to the students regarding their creative inquiry project management for the next 1-2 semesters. She had a great message on compliance, ethics and the importance of a decision framework. The framework Callahan uses at Chevron is very similar to the RIE Decision Framework. Calla Jean, one of the students in the class, who is also a member of the Ethics Bowl Team, recognized and commented on that fact. Callahan was extremely impressed that students would already be getting that type of training/experience, saying that she was years into her career before she had such training.